


alex never sent a letter (or so he thought)

by drmarc



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M, Short One Shot, post 16x16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29026473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drmarc/pseuds/drmarc
Summary: Four letters. None of which he ever remembers writing, because he is too lazy to write. Alex comes back to Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital thinking everything is fine, because in his book, everything is fine.
Relationships: Alex Karev/Jo Wilson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	alex never sent a letter (or so he thought)

**Author's Note:**

> Heyy, so this is a fix it fic? i guess, but this is just a short one shot. I had the idea a few nights ago and I just had to get it out of my system, but I hope you enjoy it!

It was a normal day at the hospital for Jo, well it was a slow day actually. It made her feel anxious, actually. Like something was going to happen but she just couldn’t figure out what, until she got paged to a trauma in the pit.

She went down to the emergency room, got into trauma room 1 where she got paged, and put on gloves before speaking loudly as she went over to the patient,  **“What do we got?”** She expected anyone, literally anyone else’s voice but his. Anyone but him.

**“Hit and run, GCS 8 in the field, severe head injury, multiple fractures, and his heart stopped but we got him back right before you got here.”** Alex says, his attention on the child on the table, answering her question as if everything was fine between them. 

Jo’s head snaps up and that's when she sees him. He looks like he did when she last saw him, his beard grew a bit longer and he looks tired. She gets lost in her thoughts that are screaming at her, reminding her of the letter he sent, one that took her entire world away in seconds. She’s brought out of her thoughts when she hears him call her name.

**“Jo. Jo, are you okay?”** She snaps back to reality in time to hear his question.  _ Is he dumb or just plain stupid?,  _ Jo thought to herself. She turns her attention to the child on the table and starts to examine him.

**“I’m sorry this is how we’re gonna spend my first day back here in weeks, but nothing says welcome back than a good, long surgery together, right?”** Alex smiles at Jo, who gapes at him.  _ The audacity!,  _ she thought.

**“Why the hell are you here? What in the world possessed you to think that I would welcome you back with open arms?”** She hisses at him and Alex looks taken aback by her words.  **“Page Dr. Grey or Dr. Bailey, now.”** Jo says loudly, aiming at the intern by the door who scrambles to page Meredith.

**“W-what? Jo, what the hell?”** Alex asks Jo, who steps away from the patient and starts to take her gloves off.

**“His abdomen’s distended, book an OR right now but Dr. Grey or Dr. Bailey, whomever is available, will be the one to do the surgery.”** Jo says to the nurse beside her before starting to make her way out of the trauma room.

**“Jo, where the hell are you going? What did I do now?”** Alex says to her, feeling himself starting to become pissed as Meredith and Bailey appear by the door, shocked to see Alex.

**“Why don’t you ask them?”** Jo sneers at him while motioning to Meredith, who already walked over to the patient to assess him herself, and Bailey, who is still standing by the doorway of the room, giving Alex a glare. Jo walks away and Alex finds himself being glared at by practically everyone in the room.

**“What the hell are you doing here?”** Bailey just about shouted at him.

-

**“I don’t know if I should be angry at you or happy that you came back. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?”** Meredith asks Alex while they’re in the elevator on the way to the OR.

**“I don’t even know what I did! Is she angry because I had to stay there longer than I thought, is that it?”** Alex asks her, completely clueless and Meredith stares at him in disbelief.

**“Of course she’s angry! She’s angry and hurt and betrayed and- wait, what did you say?”**

Confused on why Jo would feel betrayed, Alex asks Meredith,  **“Why is she feeling betrayed? Did something happen while I was gone?”** He looks at Meredith, waiting for an answer, while Meredith tries to grasp the situation.

-

**“So, you’re saying, you, Bailey, Webber, and Jo all got letters by me saying that I moved to Kansas because I found out that Izzie had my kids and I went to go live with her and that I was in love with her?”** Alex didn't know what to feel. Clearly, they were all being played. Him and Meredith were now almost done in surgery, and Meredith just got done telling him of everything that went down after he left.

**“Well, yeah, that’s basically it.”** Meredith says, glancing up at Alex before focusing back on the patient.

**“That- that’s- that’s insane!”** He stumbles over his words.

**“Oh, and you and Jo are now divorced.”**

**“WHAT?”**

\- 

**“Meredith, I don’t have time for this, I have patients.”** Jo complains while Meredith drags her to the attendings’ lounge where unbeknownst to her, Alex was waiting for her, along with Bailey and Webber.

**“You just got done checking up on all your patients, and it’s a slow day, you can’t tell me you’re busy.”** Meredith says, taking a deep breath as they near the lounge. She opens the door and pushes Jo in.

**“Yes, I can actually, because-”** Jo stops talking when she sees Alex sitting on the couch in front of Bailey and Webber. She tries to make a run for it but Meredith blocks the door.

**“I’m sorry but I have to do this. You need to listen, Alex, he-”**

**“Left me. Alex left me.”** Jo cuts Meredith off, looking her straight in the eyes, before turning her attention to him.  **“You left me. I don’t need to listen to whatever you have to say because you are not my husband anymore. You are not a colleague, you are not a friend, you are not a co-worker even. So no, I don’t need to listen to what you have to say.”**

Alex stands up from the couch and starts to walk towards Jo, but stops when he sees her backing away.  **“Jo..”** He starts but Jo cuts him off.

**“No! You know what, I think it’s time that you listen to me. I was your wife. Your wife!”** Jo shouts, her voice echoing in the small, now silent room. **“Did that title mean nothing to you? Did our whole relationship mean nothing to you? Tell me, the whole time you were with me, declaring that you love me, promising me of a life together, telling me that we were to have kids and that we would give them everything we never had, were you just wishing that it was Izzie you were saying those words to and not me?”**

Alex starts to open his mouth to tell her that she was wrong, but Jo continues on.  **“But you know what? Maybe it’s not your fault, or at least you’re not to blame for everything. I must have done something wrong that you left me without a decent goodbye. When you left, I didn’t know that that was the last time I would see you, kiss you, hug you. You didn’t even think that maybe I would’ve welcomed your kids with open arms, hell I would’ve taken them in if that was what you wanted!”**

**  
** **“You were.. You were- you are an asshole! You’re a dumb asshole who didn’t even think that-”** Jo starts to hit his arm with her lab coat that she took off before Meredith dragged her to the room.  **“You’re a dummy, you stupid, ex-husband. You’re a dummy, stupid, ex-husband. You-”**

Alex manages to catch her lab coat in his hand and cuts her off.  **“Jo, will you please shut up and listen to me for a second?”** He says, exasperatedly. Jo stares him in the eyes, breathing deeply as she tries to calm herself. 

She stares at him a while longer, before turning her focus to Meredith, then Bailey, and Webber, who all nod at her, and turns her attention back to the man in front of her. She nods wordlessly at him, who looks at her for reassurance. She just nods again and sits on the end of the couch, still trying to catch her breath.

**“Alright, will you let me talk now?”** Alex asks the four people in front him. They all nod as Meredith takes a seat on the vacant chair next to Webber.  **“Okay,”** Alex inhales before starting.  **“Meredith told me you guys received a letter. I never wrote any letter, besides I’m too lazy to write a letter, let alone four, long ones.”** He says, and he sees Jo open her mouth to say something but he beats her to it.  **“Just-just let finish first, okay?”** Jo closes her mouth and nods at him.

**“I never wrote any letter. I wasn’t in Kapaa, or whatever the hell city you thought I was in. I was in Iowa, like I told you. I went there to help my mom with some things, she had a breakdown, and then my brother had one, too, so their doctors asked me and Amber to go there for a while. I wasn’t supposed to stay there that long, but then Aaron had another relapse, broke my phone in the process, and I got swamped with everything.”** Alex explains, his eyes looking over their faces.

**“But the letters..”** Jo says, her voice trailing off as she looks at Meredith then at Alex in utter confusion.

**“Like I said, I never wrote any letter.”** Alex states firmly, but softens his tone when he starts speaking again.  **“But there is something else.”**

Bailey, Richard, and Jo all wait for him to speak again while Meredith looks like she already knows what he’s gonna say. Alex sighs before continuing,  **“I did call Izzie for Meredith’s trial, and I did hear kids in the background, but she didn’t tell me they were mine at first. I had no idea, up until less than three weeks ago when she called me while I was in Iowa and told me that the kids were mine.”** Alex glances at Jo, who is teary-eyed.

**“I tried to call you from Amber’s phone but you weren’t picking up so I just texted you. I thought you received my voicemails and messages and just let me be.”** He directed his attention to Jo, slightly turning his body to face her.  **“When Izzie told me, I tried to come home but my mom wouldn’t let me. I tried to call you again but no answer.”** Jo just stares at him, blankly.  **“She asked me if I wanted to meet them and I said yes, but I wanted to talk to you first. If I was gonna meet my kids, I wanted you to be there with me.”** Alex decides to take a risk and reach for Jo’s hand, she flinches but doesn’t take her hand away. 

**“I love you, Jo. I’m not in love with Izzie. I told you I was always gonna love her, but I’m not in love with her. I’m in love with you, did you really think I would leave after everything we went through? I love you, Jo, you’re my wife. I love you.”** Alex says, firmly but softly, his hand tightly gripping hers. Jo’s lower lip starts to quiver and the dam breaks. Jo starts sobbing and Alex immediately moves closer to her, pulling her closer to him. 

Meredith, Bailey, and Webber also looked pained at Jo’s sobs. Meredith walks over to Jo and rubs her arm softly before standing back up and walking towards the door, motioning to Webber and Bailey to do the same. The three leave the room to give the two lovers some privacy. 

Alex tries his best to calm Jo, rubbing her back and trying to talk to her, but the magnitude of her sobs stay the same.  **“Hey, Jo, it’s okay. I’m here, I’m not leaving you. I love you.”** Alex tries to reassure Jo, who just sobs more at hearing his words. Alex repeats those words of reassurance to her until her sobs turn into soft cries.

**“I’m here, Jo, I’m right here. I love you, okay? I love you. I’m not leaving you.”** Alex repeats. Jo grabs his arms and looks up at him, the sight of her flushed face and bloodshot eyes breaks Alex’s heart.

Jo sniffles and says,  **“You’re not in love with Izzie?”**

**“I’m not in love with Izzie. I’m in love with you and only you, I thought you got that.”** He says, reassuringly as his hands come up to hold Jo’s face.

**“You’re not moving to Kansas? You’re not leaving me?”** Jo asks him, like a child asking, begging their parents not to give them away. 

Ale shakes his head ‘no’ before saying,  **“I’m not leaving you to move to Kansas. If I’m ever going to Kansas, you’re gonna be right there with me.”** He rests his forehead on hers, staring deeply into her eyes.

They stay in a comfortable silence for a few moments, both basking in each other’s embrace and presence.  **“So, when do you want to meet our kids?”** Jo asks Alex, her eyes looking up at him but still staying in the same position she was in.

**“Our kids, huh?”** Alex chuckles and Jo only smiles and nods.

**“What’s yours is mine, remember?”** Jo giggles as Alex’s hand moves to her waist, pulling her closer to him, and captures her lips in a loving kiss, only humming in response.

Alex pulls away first and whispers against her lips,  **“I love you.”** Jo pulls him back in for another kiss and mumbles the words,  _ “I love you.”,  _ in their kiss.


End file.
